Painting!

"Ok, only 6 rooms, 2 closets, a hallway and 1 bathroom left!"

The Easter long weekend saw our daytime temperatures finally start to turn around. That got the snow melting, causing our muddy driveway to become a rutted bog in a few spots. The good news there is that this means that eventually the snow will all be gone and the mud will soon disappear. To celebrate the warmer weather we spent the entire weekend inside, painting. While this may seem to some to be wasting the good weather, to us it means that we can see an end to the dusty hell that has been the inside of our house for the past month. We have chosen a variety of colours for the various rooms in the place - "cinnamon bun" for the downstairs bathroom, "azure afternoon" blue for Alex's room, "moss" green for the laundry room, "caramel cake" for the rest of the downstairs, and finally, "tahoe stone" tan and a deep red (whose name escapes me) for the loft bedroom. However, before we can put this rainbow of colour up, we first have to seal and prime every square inch of drywall in the house. We could have purchased the paint that claims to include the primer in the mix and so requires just a couple of coats of the colour directly on the raw drywall. As wonderful as it is, however, we opted to buy separate primer and coloured paints <"opted", as in "couldn't afford the good stuff">.

Just like HGTV! Hey, we're even using a level!

We chose to take a room-by-room approach to the painting. We would go in and prime all the walls and the ceiling (if the room had a ceiling). Then, we cut-in the white ceiling paint and painted on two coats of the flat finish paint. Once dry (only an hour or two later), we taped off the edges where the walls meet the ceiling and then cut-in the wall paint, followed by two coats of the chosen colour. We then removed the tape, touched up any problem areas. Of course, while we were waiting for the paint to dry between coats, we went ahead and performed the same operations in the next room, and so on, and so on...
I'm very happy to report that after 3 hard days of work we have finished the laundry room! Yeah, I know that doesn't sound like much progress, but we really did get lots done. Everything on the main floor except for the dining room wall and the top part of the big glass, east wall has been primed. Alex's room (main floor bedroom) has the ceiling paint done and one coat of the blue on the walls. The hallway and kitchen have the first coat of ceiling paint complete. The upstairs bathroom has been primed and has the first coat of ceiling paint on.

Ben finding a "safe" place away from the painters!

In addition to the painting, we assembled and installed the 3 cupboards over the washer/dryer and put all the electrical cover plates back on in the laundry room. So now ALL we need is window and baseboard trim, a light fixture/switch, flooring and a door (OMG, we're never going to be finished!) and this room is done! Well it felt like we got a lot done anyway!
It's Alex's birthday today - Happy 25th, Alex. Now, go finish painting your room!